Challenging Questions.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

did you not say
that if one does not believe
in fairies
then another fairy dies?

how many fairies have we
killed today?

from there is it not also true
that if a writer is not read
then the writer dies?

or would it be true too, perhaps,
truer than what we could say,
that if a reader ceases to read,
it must be
that he already died and we did not
know for sure
since we do not know him anyway?

and so I ask
how many readers have we killed today?
i do not have flowers to offer.

how about you then? would you deliver
a memorable eulogy?